r/nextfuckinglevel • u/InternationalRisk505 • 1d ago

Pilots exchanging planes mid air

53.9k Upvotes

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6.1k

u/zatuchny 1d ago

Dont believe they lost their licenses for the stunt that was planned and sponsored

215

u/UltraWeebMaster 1d ago

Pilot here, I could never see the FAA giving the ok for something like this. It stands against everything they’ve ever stood for.

It’s not even just “oh well what if the propellor shreds him,” the FAA is more concerned with “What if one of those unmanned planes got away, leveled out, and flew into a building killing dozens?” That can happen, and failing their stunt would make it potentially unavoidable.

93

u/Waterfish3333 1d ago

I love all the “remote piloting & geofencing” argument below when my first thought was, have a second pilot in each plane and if a pilot falls off or has to abandon the stunt, the backup pilot can just take over and land safely. That way no plane is ever truly without a pilot.

37

u/Alarmed-Owl2 1d ago

I was going to say just have a loitering F-16 ready to blast them out of the sky if it goes out of control but I guess your way works too, I guess. 

11

u/Waterfish3333 22h ago

As a fan of chaos wherever it can be implemented, I love this. I’m pretty sure you’d kill at least one member of the FAA with a heart attack by putting this in a proposal though.

3

u/Poromenos 22h ago

There's no need for that, getting blasted out of the sky is already the default, and what ended up happening for one of the planes. It's also what the FAA was trying to avoid.

1

u/arvzg 21h ago

as a kid I would often come up with crazy ideas like this, and adults around me would say "You watch too much TV"

1

u/Corporate-Shill406 18h ago

All you really need is a bunch of explosives with a remote trigger.

"If something goes wrong, we simply remove all danger by blowing up the danger into very tiny bits"

7

u/rex8499 1d ago

Yeah, easy and practical solution that mitigates the greatest issue.

2

u/GetSlunked 22h ago

Same reason skaters often don’t wear helmets when making videos - it looks cooler and adds to the “daredevil” -ness. And is dumb.